Sunday, September 04, 2005

New Orleans, Year Zero

Just received a message that people are being kept from leaving this location by FEMA!

Harry truman school. 5417 Ehret Road Marrero, LA 70072 Jefferson County Phone: (504) 341-0961 Don Boyle and Danny Walker are at Harry Truman Middle School in Marrero LA, under MARITAL law...living in feces and filth..ppl are dying around him..the GOVT won't let him go....they are DYING..all 60..they had 362 down to 60 still alive...no water, no ice...23 murders, 123 rapes...

From today's Independent, stories from the Superdome that make sense the way Abu Ghraib makes sense:

"We went there because we thought we would be safe, but instead we were more inmates than anything." James, 31, was born in New Orleans. After what happened in the Superdome, he says, he will never, ever, go back to the city. "I can't go back there after what we've been through." By the last night, he says, the soldiers of the National Guard had given up even patrolling the inside of the arena, leaving it to succumb to its own ugliness and anarchy.

"There was babies born and put in the garbage".... When the bathrooms became so foul that going into them was impossible, people began squatting down just anywhere to relieve themselves. "Human beings don't live like that, people in the street don't live like that," she says.

Sheriff Harry Lee's deputies caught FEMA agents trying to cut the phone lines in Jefferson Parish. On Meet the Press, Parish President Aaron Broussard said that "yesterday — yesterday — FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines." Why would FEMA do that? It makes no sense in a disaster zone, but it has a logic under martial law.

How will they survive this crisis? Easy. They'll create another crisis.

It's how they govern, by burying one catastrophe with another. Containing disaster is not in their interest. And it's not how Halliburton does business.

Katrina accelerates the broadening of the war. Drumbeats to solve the Iran "problem" will likely become deafening in coming weeks. You may want to cover your ears, but you should know what you'll be missing. Your eyes, too. There will be a lot of John Bolton.

At least the flags have finally been lowered to half staff, now William Rehnquist has died.

Jeff, go visit your DU link about FEMA turning people back. despite being consistent with other threads (and even FOX reports) THAT THREAD WAS LOCKED. I'm not a DU member, but I'm wondering why anyone still is.

I don't think you FEMA page-scrub announcement is quite accurate (though I had no trouble believing it until I double-checked).

There seem to be multiple declarations involved, with different identifying numbers. Note that your screen grab cites EM-3212, while the 'same page' you link to is DR-1603. Perhaps someone else knows what DR stands for; I think I can guess on EM. In any case, the page for EM-3212, which you grabbed, is still on the site, with dates unchanged.

We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with our trucks, FEMA says don’t give you the fuel. Yesterday — yesterday — FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines...

I want to give you one last story and I’ll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I’m in, Emergency Management, he’s responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?” and he said, “Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you.” Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday… and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing] Nobody’s coming to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us. The Secretary has promised. Everybody’s promised. They’ve had press conferences. I’m sick of the press conferences. For god’s sakes, just shut up and send us somebody.

As a Dutch citizen I and more of my fellow citizens are looking at the whole situation in a shocked and surprised way. We really think that Bush waited sending in the troops to help the people because it is a black community. When the heart of the market (NY) was hit, in notime help was there. Now the heart of jazz (New Orleans) was hit and for days there was nothing. Not from the state that is... Thanks to the Salvation Army and the Red Cross some relief came in... GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Cheers from Ronald from Amsterdam (yes, my partner and I donated some money...)

As I detailed in Jeff's previous blog post, the Red Cross and United Way shouldn't be entrusted with people's donations, as their historical past thefts and intentional divertion of capital have indicated. I recomended that people instead seek out locally-based charities in which to contribute. I promised I would post some if I heard of any and here's one:http://www.getyouracton.comThey're physically taking donations down, and stated that the fucking National Guard is PREVENTING them and the Red Cross from physically delivering critical resources to the starving people.

The soldiers that comply with these orders truly earned a place in hell and the full brunt of God's wrath. We all remember some others who claimed they were just "following orders". The world is watching and you can just bet that they are preparing so that this racial genocide doesn't happen to them. The hideous demon face of the U.S. government stands exposed. The racist media counted on white America to stand by them and eat up the vicious demonizing our fellow citizens. It blew up in their face, and they have to pull back and try a new divide and conquer tactic. They wanted us not to care, to catagorically reject them from our sympathy and human family. They wanted hearts and minds to join them in their unholy sacrifice. What they got, is the anger and emnity of people unifying on the common grounds of morality, justice and true liberty.

As I detailed in Jeff's previous blog post, the Red Cross and United Way shouldn't be entrusted with people's donations, as their historical past thefts and intentional divertion of capital have indicated. I recomended that people instead seek out locally-based charities in which to contribute. I promised I would post some if I heard of any and here's one:http://www.getyouracton.comThey're physically taking donations down, and stated that the fucking National Guard is PREVENTING them and the Red Cross from physically delivering critical resources to the starving people.

The soldiers that comply with these orders truly earned a place in hell and the full brunt of God's wrath. We all remember some others who claimed they were just "following orders". The world is watching and you can just bet that they are preparing so that this racial genocide doesn't happen to them. The hideous demon face of the U.S. government stands exposed. The racist media counted on white America to stand by them and eat up the vicious demonizing our fellow citizens. It blew up in their face, and they have to pull back and try a new divide and conquer tactic. They wanted us not to care, to catagorically reject them from our sympathy and human family. They wanted hearts and minds to join them in their unholy sacrifice. What they got, is the anger and emnity of people unifying on the common grounds of morality, justice and true liberty.

Thank you, Jeff. RI is interesting, even if it's a little breathless at times.

All of us get in a hurry and make mistakes. Imagine the stress that people in New Orleans city government, police, and fire departments are under right now. I imagine that many of them have lost family, friends, and property in Katrina, yet they still have to be on duty.

There's been a public outcry for ACTION!, dammit, and now we're going to see it, good and bad.

It doesn't necessarily take a conspiracy to produce tragedy, just the foibles of human nature.

Here's something interesting: I was just emailed the same story on the shootings on the bridge from a friend back East. Only all the info about their being contractors was stripped out. The time on his story was 10 minutes after the one on breitbart.

If you do a search on Yahoo for "Danziger Bridge" some stories mention the contractors and others just "armed men."

The most recent Yahoo story, 22 minutes ago, is different from either of the other two. Now instead of the contractors being the victims, the victims are people who shot at the contractors:

Gunmen Attack Contractors on La. Bridge

24 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.

Yup, deliberately ignoring projected disaster scenarios, defending them, turning FEMA into a joke run by a horse's ass, leaving people abandoned and stranded and treated like villains not victims, gotta love those human foibles.

I've got another foible for you, it was called Treblinka. And another: it's called Falluja.

It's all part of the same FOIBLE and it's called FASCIST GENOCIDE.

Sorry to be so breathless but the scope of this tragedy and the wilful blindness of some who can't see it when it's on their frickin' teevee screen in screaming color just takes MY breath away.

Believe it that it is all but over in this pathetic, fake, mass murdering country, the chickens are coming back to the roost in expedited fashio - - the Phillipines, Viet Nam, Nicaragua, El Salvador and who knows how many other murdered, maimed, raped and defiled by CIA assholes and their buddies from Yale - - get used to it white bread assholes - - your time is now, here the bells ringing, New Orleans, right now a "race" thing, is a clear look in the looking glass of the not so distant future of this entire country and of what is coming very soon and, unfortunately, so richly deserved for every "citizen" of the world's most vicious and successful fascist country, thru brutalizing so much of the world's poor and suffering, its Nazi elites about to drop the club on the obese and clueless fools who populate this souless continent -- too bad, but it is here and it is ugly and it is not going away - - Pat Robertson is the best representative of what the USA really is and that is a fact . . . when it is gone, if it does not take the rest of the world with it, it will not be missed but will be remembered as a hateful lousy self righteous place full of the worst mankind ever saw - - all is deserved, and it is coming at the speed of a freight train w/the Bush family laughing in your fat obese face . . . .worldwide no one will care, why should they?

How can a nation that contributed smallpox infested blankets, the Trail of Tears, the School of the Americas, Manzanar, My Lai, napalm, Andersonville, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, the Bay of Pigs, the periodic 'lone nuts' like Oswald, Sirhan and Ray, invisible WMD (ain't that funny watchin' Bush pretend to look for 'em?), a Gini coefficient score equal to Turkmenistan, schools full of illiterate children stoned on Ritalin...a country that thinks Cheez Whiz is food, Danielle Steel is a writer, the best use of celluloid is to remake shitty television shows, the best use of television is Bill O'Reilly and "Green Acres" reruns, the best use of 'human capital' is to make a lot of shoddy crap that nobody wants but puts on their charge cards and buy a $20K house that costs 100 times more because it's in some snootbag neighborhood half a mile from the fucking San Andreas fault with no money down and tool around in a Hummer with a "Support the Troops" ribbon on it even though no one in their family, circle of friends, or neighborhood is closer to Iraq than Paris on a honeymoon or Rome on a summer study tour....

Come on. We SHALL be missed by the rest of the world.

Like a crazy old uncle (named Sam) who got hold of a gun and terrorized everybody in the family till he finally put the gun to his own head and BA.DA.BING and everybody heaves a sigh of relief and signs up for therapy for PTSD.

Think about it, folks--the destruction of New Orleans was always projected as the worst-case natural disaster scenario in this country, and the most likely to happen. The eye hitting to the east was the 2nd-most-deadly scenario (direct hit and instant drowning of everbody from south-to-north storm surge was #1 most deadly). Now, the ruling oligarchy is by definition psychopathic, and their puppets in 'power' 1) staged 9-11 2) went to war in Iraq; don't you think it's just a wee bit possible that 3) they have little fuck-up scenarios scripted for all the likely natural disasters, too? CIA and corpos. are pure, banal, unadulterated, psychopathic evil, so none of this "affects" them or "bothers" them. None of those people have empathy or compassion; they are only "people", and we have enable them, and continue to do so. I am SO FRIGGIN TIRED of the liberal blogs blaming Bush for everything--all they want is some Kerry in there, and middle class life-as-usual. They're just a bunch of NIMBYs who don't want this in their faux-progressive states. We need to be opportunistic and start doing something more--why doesn;t anyone say "We are ALL insurgents now?" Because I'll tell you what, I'm down here, and not one mofo has said "We are all crackers and southern blacks now"--see, this whole thing ain't scripted. Nagin ain't Giuliani--the latter knew what was planned, and followed the Hollywood script, right? And on cue, Americans swayed and clapped and swooned. And the whole damn thing was made for TV.

OF COURSE this "State" is using Katrina for practice. It's not like they don't believe Global Warming. The oligarchy sees us, all of us, as "consumers" and "voters"--none of us, not one, is human to them, not their type of human.

No, and again, no (I could use the money, though.) Is a troll merely someone who disagrees—not all the time, mind you—with the party line here?

He's good at keeping the conversation going.

Well, as an RI nOOb, I appreciate that. Isn't this the point of RI, you know, discussing ideas, or examining the truth of a matter?

Jeff describes himself in his profile as a "Cautiously pessimistic Canadian author and satirist." I'm a cautious pessimist myself; not a Canadian (I have visited: very nice place); and I'm certainly not immune to good irony, either. Like in this thread, for instance.

Treat accordingly i.e. ignore

Ah, nothing like entertaining dissenting opinions. I must have taken three wrong left turns somewhere: am I at LGF?

Thanks for the kind welcome, but enough jousting. Let's get back to Jeff's topics at hand.

The devil doesn't need a fuckin' advocate Cenoxo, he can go on vacation because of the amount of evil two-legged cancers infesting the world. Your opinions are backwards and the game you're playing is becoming suspect. You are contributing nothing to the discourse but ignorance and juvenile banter. Do us all a favor and go to bed and let your mommy or daddy write the posts.

Lets talk about the one thing that no one has mentioned about New Orleans.VooDoo.I realize that there are RI regulars that see the surface reality of things, but one of the things I love about Jeff is his ability to see the things below the surface. VooDoo is just such a thing.The realm of dark magic is vast and complex, and for the most part invisible. But I was in N.O. in the 90's and was wittness to some strangeness that involved VooDoo and let me tell you, when I read about floating corpses and cannabilism, I started to think that there is more at work here than inept government and poverty stricken people. I know that many readers will dissagree, but I think that there is a war going on and the generals of it are the darkest of magicians.

For those who may have forgotten, in the self-referential bickering snarling up this thread, here's Jeff's original post, or at least the most shocking part of it:

"Sheriff Harry Lee's deputies caught FEMA agents trying to cut the phone lines in Jefferson Parish. On Meet the Press, Parish President Aaron Broussard said that "yesterday — yesterday — FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines." Why would FEMA do that? It makes no sense in a disaster zone, but it has a logic under martial law."

Attention Conservation Notice: Likely to make you feel even worse about Katrina than you do already.

Link:Hey look, you could spit-up bird flu and have it genetically analyzed instantly on a swab! Really?Well, no. But almost.http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/08/wo/wo_082905.asp?trk=nl

(((When prize-winning journalist and emergent-disease guru Laurie Garrett wrote her friends a gossipy note about the goings on at the Davos Forum, her bold remarks were swiftly forwarded to a host of strangers, including the readers of Viridian List. For about a year, Ms Garrett's noteworthy remarks were one of the most popular search-hits on Viridiandesign.org. Today Laurie Garrett is back, with remarks of even more intense interest to Viridian readers. Especially if you live anywhere within mosquito range of the NOLA eco-disaster zone.)))

"As we head into Labor Day Weekend most of us are heartbroken by news from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The Council on Foreign Relations Global Health Program has been watching the situation closely, with a special eye on possible disease situations. We would like to bring some key points to your attention.

"This transmission is going out on Friday, September 2: It is possible that the situation will have changed markedly by the time some of you read this, as you may not be checking your e-mail until after the holiday.

"We would first like to draw your attention to the extraordinary work being done by the staff of the New Orleans Times Picayune. You can see the newspaper, which is currently only able to publish online, here:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/

"Friends on the Picayune staff tell us that the newspaper offices and printing presses were overwhelmed in the flooding, forcing the entire staff to relocate to facilities at LSU in Baton Rouge. There, the exhausted staff has been living 4-6 to a room in the dorms, or on cots in the makeshift newsroom, covering the demise of their fair city. If there is justice in the world, these folks will win the Pulitzer Prize for Community Service Journalism. (((Note: Laurie Garrett is a Pulitzer Prize winner.)))

"Meanwhile, the Global Health Program sees parallels between such things as the tsunami response, major epidemic outbreaks, refugee crises, and the U.S. government response to Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath.

"First, a lot of the early media coverage focused on repeating the same stock footage over and over of lootings. The looters were nearly all black, and you could well imagine that many viewers were thinking, 'How could those people behave that way?'The image of black looters, harking to riots in the past and 'lawlessness', may have sparked a temporary downturn in American concern. From that moment the call was not for rescue, but for 'law and order'. We are only now returning to a serious rescue mode, in light of public outcry regarding the estimated 20,000 people stranded without food, water, medicine, or hygiene in the New Orleans Convention Center.

"In our experience such shifts of external public opinion, however transient they may be, have enormous outcomes on the ground, where minutes may have life-and-death consequences.

"Across the region we have some of the worst poverty in America, and most of that poverty has a black face.Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana: these are states that consistently, since the Civil War, have ranked in the bottom five states in America for virtually every social achievement, from education and infant mortality to police corruption. Government, for many of the region's poor, has had one of two faces: corruption or overt neglect. New Orleans has had one of the highest murder rates in the nation for decades and a notoriously corrupt police force. In our experience dealing with catastrophes and epidemics overseas, there is a DIRECT correlation between the historic relationship between government and its people, and the willingness of the populace to believe in and correctly respond to government instructions. Of course tens of thousands of people failed to evacuate: why believe the government this time? And of course those folks who are slowly starving and baking in New Orleans assume that government has abandoned them.

"I found myself recalling the way the Chinese people responded to the SARS epidemic. Because they knew that their government had lied to them many times in the past and had covered up cases in the capital, people turned away from official government sources of information. Rumors spread like wildfire via cell phone text messaging, spawning a mass exodus from Beijing of tens of thousands of people. The medical system in China is notoriously corrupt and the peasants stay away from hospitals unless it is a matter of life and death. When government told the masses to go to the hospitals if they had fevers, the Chinese refused. The SARS situation spiraled out of control in large part because the people had long-standing, sound reasons for distrusting their government. Public health collapses if the bond of trust between government and its people breaks, or never exists. I saw the same thing with plague in India in '94.

"Perhaps the single most crucial difference between New York's response to 9/11 and New Orleans' and the hurricane region's response to the current crisis is communication and its corollary, leadership. Though cell phones were disrupted and emergency responders in Lower Manhattan lost contact during the morning of 9/11, the people of New York knew immediately what was going on. We did not lose electricity citywide, TVs, radios. Mayor Giuliani rose to the occasion brilliantly, making full use of every press conference and broadcast opportunity to honestly assess the situation, telling New Yorkers what the government did, and did not, know. New Yorkers were frightened, of course, but they knew what was going on and they could see, minute by minute, what was being done in their behalf.

"In contrast, none of the people now trapped in New Orleans or wandering around in shock along the Mississippi/Alabama coastal communities have any idea what is going on. They have no electricity, and therefore no television or radio. Information is entirely rumors. When reporters interview them, these desperate souls are grilling the journalists for news. This means that the comfort of observed leadership is completely absent. No matter what the Mayor of New Orleans says, his people cannot hear him. They do not see the vast destruction. I doubt more than a handful of the folks trapped inside New Orleans at this moment have any idea how massive the damage to the Gulf Coast is.

"Worse, there is real danger that the only overt sign of leadership will be military, in the form of anti-looting enforcement and armed personnel.While bringing law and order to the situation is essential, the absence of obvious civilian leadership and information means many local refugees will view themselves as an occupied or policed population. Given overtones of racism, this could be explosive.

"Looking forward, based again on my years of covering Third World disasters, here are my concerns:

"1.) The Mississippi Delta region is the natural ecological home of a long list of infectious microbial diseases. It is America's tropical region, more akin ecologically to Haiti or parts of Africa than to Boston or Los Angeles. The most massive Yellow Fever epidemics in the Americas all swept, in the 19th Century, up the Mississippi from the delta region. Malaria was not eradicated from the area until after World War II. Isolated cases of dengue fever, another mosquito-borne disease, have been spotted in the region over the last ten years.

"Not only are all the mosquitoes that traditionally carry these microbes still thriving in the area, but the Aedes albopictus mosquito == a large, aggressive monster, was introduced to the Americas from Asia about 15 years ago, and now thrives in the Gulf area.

"See:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/arbor/albopic_new.htm

"Most of these troublesome mosquito species reproduce rapidly in precisely the conditions now present, post-hurricane. Some prefer massive stands of still, warm, polluted water: that would be New Orleans. Some, such as albopictus and Yellow Fever carrier Aedes aegypti

"See:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/dengue/ae-aegypti-feeding.htm

"like small pools of unsalted water, such as fresh rainwater that accumulates in tree stumps and debris. One of their favorite breeding sites is the dark, warm, water-filled cavity of an abandoned tire, for example.

"America's commitment to mosquito control has been declining steadily since we eradicated malaria, and even fear of West Nile Virus didn't spawn a massive re-commitment to funding mosquito abatement programs. Worse, to my knowledge nobody has ever had much success in clearing mosquitoes from the sort of massive water-soaked ecology that now is New Orleans, nor the scale of water-pooling debris found along the Gulf tri-state area.

"It is perhaps ironic that the only real experience with this scale of insect control for the last two decades has been in developing countries: the CDC and State health folks should be reaching out to PAHO and the insect control expertises of Africa and the Caribbean right now.

"If we cannot manage to get ahead of the insects, there could very well be a disease crisis ahead.

"2.) For years the CDC has warned about Vibrio cholerae

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/cholera_g.htm

Vibrio vulnificus and other gastrointestinal organisms found in shellfish and some fish caught in the Gulf of Mexico. The old New Orleans mantra has been that Tabasco kills 'em, so chow down the raw oysters and forgettaboutit.

"But we would not be the least surprised to see a surge in algal blooms and their vibrio passengers over the next two weeks both inside New Orleans and along the Gulf. Consider this: the hurricane must have disrupted all of the coral reefs in the region, and killed millions of fish. All that rot is now floating around in the Gulf. It is food for algal blooms. The vibrio live in the blooms.

"3.) One word: sewage. The longer the region goes without proper systems for control of human waste, the greater the probability of transmission not only of cholera, but a long list of dysentery and gastrointestinal agents. Evacuating every human being from New Orleans will, of course, help, but there will remain potential disaster all along the tri-state coastline. Members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which has mobilized scientists and physicians nationwide in readiness to respond should an outbreak occur, have compiled this list of possible organisms to be concerned about at this time:

Respiratory and close contact:MeningiococcusTuberculosisMeasles, mumps (herd immunity likely very high)Pertussis (herd immunity modestly high among high-risk age groups)

"4.) Pharmaceutical supplies are a bewildering problem: why has nobody broken into pharmacies around New Orleans to get essential supplies for the refugees, and hospitals? We have dead diabetics,and probably epileptics seizing, CVD patients in need of nitro, and children who could benefit from proper antibiotics.

" 5.) One past hurricane in the region produced so much debris that the cleared garbage filled an abandoned coal mine. (((My, that one is particularlyapt.))) We have never in history tried to dispose of this much waste. (((Really?))) It is hoped thatbefore any officials rush off thinking of how to burn or dump a few hundred thousand boats, houses and buildings, some careful consideration isgiven to recycling that material for construction of future levees, dams, and foundations. Looking at aerial images of the coastline one sees an entire forest worth of lumber, and the world's largest cementquarry. No doubt tens of thousands of the now unemployed of the region could be hired for areclamation effort that would be rationalin scale and intent. It would be horrible if all that debris were simply dumped or burned without any thought to its utility.

"6.) The mental health of hundreds of thousands of people must now be a priority. Uprooted, homeless,jobless, rootless and in many cases grieving for lost loved ones: These people will all suffer fora very long time. A key to their recovery is, again, a lesson from 9/11: information. Whether they are'housed' in the Houston Astrodome, are in tents inBiloxi or end up a diaspora of Gulf refugees flung all across America, these people will for months bestarving for information about their homes and communities. The poor will not be logging onto computers somewhere to read bulletins fromFEMA. These people will rely primarily on broadcast information, and it is essential that the leaders of the three states and key mayors create reliable information sources for people to turn to. The TimesPicayune online will, of course, be the primary go-to site for middle class Gulf refugees and expatriates, but to what outlet will a million poor folks turn? Knowing what is going on 'back home'is essential to mental health recovery. We have been in disasters in poor countries where wild rumors flowed among the poor for months, each one sparking a fresh round of anxiety and fear. If governmentcannot inform, there is no government. (((!)))

"7.) America, and this government, is going towitness an enormous political backlash from theseevents, stemming primarily from the African American community, if steps are not boldly taken todemonstrate less judgment, and greater assistance, for the black poor of the region. Cries of racism will be heard. In every disaster we have been engaged in we have witnessed a similar sense by the victimsof disasters that they were being singled out, and ignored by their government, because of their ethnicity, religion or race. The onus ison government to prove them wrong.

"8.) Much more thought needs to be given immediately to the needs of medical and psychiatric responders located just outside of the region. The patient flow they are now receiving is minuscule compared to the tidal wave coming their way, whetherthey are in Baton Rouge, Jacksonville or Houston. FEMA and HHS need to get a massive and steady flow of supplies their way, and coordinate tertiary careneeds according to the skills base in each hospital. If it hasn't already, HRSA needs to issue clear waivers immediately for Medicaid coverage for the poor, so that no hospital in the region, private or public, has an excuse for turning people away.

"Finally, we would like to share with you a letter that went out to physicians and scientists nationwide today, from the Infectious Diseases Society of America(IDSA). If you cut through the acronyms and jargon you can see the point: they are mobilizing.

If the information being disseminated from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana is correct, there are a few items that I believe should be examined immediately.

1. The infrastructure of the United States has been plundered to the point of incapacity by the bandits in charge...What we are seeing is what happens when the empire is run by Enron.

2. Acts of genocide are presently occurring on the North American continent. The motive behind these acts are not clear, as it would require getting into the minds of the sadists running the show. It is, of course, obvious that race is an issue in this atrocity (I can't believe I'm typing these words in this context. It is horrifying). However, racism does not literally equate with mass murder. So the economic "non-impact" of most of the victims must also be taken into account, as cold and unfortunate as that may sound, as it is such a major factor in American society. Even acknowledging this, however, it simply can NOT be ignored that the lack of response combined with the strategic and deadly use of force leads to the conclusion that the leadership of the country is making its policy of abandoning democracy official. Unless someone can propose any rational justification why this situation could possibly be associated with the words "politically advantageous", of course.

3. What must be determined next, as quickly as possible, is exactly what brand of power is being hoisted up the flagpole. As much as people want to know why the bandits in charge are proceeding down this dark path (They are Nazis! Commies! Yakuza! Zionists! etc etc etc), it is just as (if not more) important to understand exactly how this group is operating. In other words, "don't ask me how the microwave heats up my food...I'm fine as long as I know how to set the timer" is a mentality that may offend some of us, but it is something that can be worked with. Even a very basic education can be essential. These crimes will continue as long as those with the method and means to stop them remain without the current capability to understand the mindset capable of creating this event. The empirical evidence is mounting in a trail of death and destruction that any sane human can follow.

4. Life "goes on", of course. Where to? I'm just not certain. There is no reliable information as to what degree of control the bandits in charge have of the most lethal military/counter-military force in modern history. I am concerned by the potential scenario that the US hasn't used the majority of its remaining forces to rescue its own citizenry from this disaster because those forces had been diverted, en masse, for some other event. In other words, Hurricane Katrina caught the bandits in charge with their collective pants down. But what could that event possibly be? Either way, this is murder in a locally unprecedented scale, and an era I am sad to bear witness to.

"Mayor Giuliani rose to the occasion brilliantly, making full use of every press conference and broadcast opportunity to honestly assess the situation, telling New Yorkers what the government did, and did not, know ..."

We love this stuff, here at RI. We're enormous fans of Mayor Giuliani.

Blowback from Bioweapons research must have the ruling class running scared!

Isn't that the subtext of the memo form the Council on Foreign Relations posted here? Laurie Garrett has served the CFR's interests well by describingemerging diseases in lurid detail without emphasizing, say Uncle Sam's biological weapons programs.

In this case, the early reference to LSU brings to mind the "biodefense" labs there, running on a very highbiosecurity status (BSL-3). The pathogens that were being bred are some of the most virulent known to humanity, and are indeed spread by mosquito-borne vectors, not to mention water and air!

Anonymous @ 6:58 AM: The post was quoting Laurie Garrett, who is a semi-public figure. Her field of expertise is infectious disease epidemiology, so she would not be expected to know much about Giulani, nor would she have anything to gain by criticizing him. However, she is no friend to corruption and negligence of governments.

I suspect Bush will try to kill two birds with one stone and force the young and able Katrina victims into the armed forces - ready, paying tank meat job just waiting to be filled. "What? not a patriot? After we gave you a bottle of water and a ham sandwich?"

for some reasonI can access that audio clip of the interview...not the one of the president of orleans parish, the first one about people being held in the school. the "smilies" ad on the page won't close so I can't actually click on it....is it maybe being hosted somewhere else?

Laurie Garrett is a Senior Fellow for Global Health at CFR ("CFR Experts — Senior Fellows are experienced scholars and practitioners who have spent considerable time in the academic, government, or private sectors.").

Her bio is here on CFR's site, along with a list of her articles and columns. See also the CFR Health page. Her latest missive hasn't made either list yet.

Garrett's opinions on the threat of other epidemics have been challenged here, and she has responded here.

Hm. Bought the "Independent" today (my work internet is so slow, it's actually quicker to buy a paper). A GOOD story about a black chap who rescued people; and, incidentally, on BBC news last night, an interview with a lady - they said "Why didn't you leave?" and she said "Well, I didn't think it would be that bad".Come on, was she really going to tell the whole world that she had nowhere to go, and no money to get there? Of course not. Sometimes pride is sll some people have left.

I was discussing this with my partner - a former Borough Councillor - and he insisted that our town wouldn't have just left people. We would have mobilised evrything from the TA to the Boy Scouts, our municpal 'bus company end even Council lorries.

"Knock knock""Sorry, Madam (or Sir) - you have to leave. Do you have the means to do it?"

"No, I'm a pensioner - and what about my cat?"

(Sigh)

"No problem, madam, there is a 'bus at the end of the street. If you can get your cat into a box, we'll give you 15 minutes and he can come too."

Re the Laurie Garrett email quoted above by sourced-veridian above, she closes by referring to another letter sent to U.S. physicians by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, outlining some of the steps being taken to monitor and treat people in the disaster areas. Here's the text (also online here):

- - -Dear Colleague,

All of us have been shocked and dismayed by the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. We sympathize with those affected and would like to provide assistance and relief both as individuals and as a Society.

Over the last 48 hours, IDSA and HIVMA leaders and staff have been in contact with infectious diseases physicians in the affected areas, with staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), with local health officials, and with others in order to determine how our Society and members can be of greatest help in this rapidly evolving situation.

Sections of the IDSA and HIVMA websites (www.idsociety.org and www.hivma.org) have been set aside to provide current information regarding opportunities as we learn of them and to provide information on relevant infectious diseases in this situation.

1. Physicians to provide primary care are needed in all of the affected areas. The websites provide links to the medical societies of the three affected states who are seeking volunteer physicians, as well as to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is also seeking volunteers. Volunteers should not report directly to the affected areas unless directed by a voluntary agency. Self-dispatched volunteers can put themselves and others in harms' way and hamper rescue efforts.

2. As the situation evolves, we expect that there will be an increasing need to provide infectious disease patient consultations. IDSA has offered the expertise of its members to help in this regard. To do so, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has asked NIAID and IDSA to coordinate provision of a telephone/e-mail ID consult service. NIAID will be the clearinghouse for calls from consulting physicians, who will then be linked to ID consultants.

If you are interested in participating in this activity, please provide your contact information on the IDSA website.

3. We are evaluating the potential use of the Emerging Infections Network in the affected areas to identify outbreaks of infection early in their course.

4. HIVMA is working to ensure that persons with HIV/AIDS from the hurricane-affected areas have access to HIV medications and medical care financed through public programs like Medicaid and the Ryan White CARE Act, without burdensome eligibility or residency requirements. HIVMA will also be posting information about state and local policies that have been implemented to further these goals.

We will provide additional information regarding relief activities on the website as it becomes available. Your comments and suggestions are welcome, as is first-hand information regarding infectious disease and public health experiences in the affected areas.

Best regards,

Walter E. Stamm, MDIDSA President- - -

Dr. Stamm recommends in item #4 that eligibility requirements for Medicare-provided HIV medication and care should be waived. This same request has been sent to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: see that letter here (51 kb PDF.)

Why treat people if they're just supposed to be dead and out of the way?

American_Dream wrote: ...the early reference to LSU brings to mind the "biodefense" labs there, running on a very high biosecurity status (BSL-3). The pathogens that were being bred are some of the most virulent known to humanity, and are indeed spread by mosquito-borne vectors, not to mention water and air!

Who knows what state those labs are in?

There's nothing specific mentioned about the condition of the lab, but there don't seem to be any problems. LSU-Baton Rouge is officially starting classes tomorrow, September 6th, and they have also been providing medical services for evacuees at various campus athletic facilities:

LSU has been playing a crucial role in providing emergency medical services to evacuees from hurricane devastated areas. The evacuation efforts on campus are now extensive. The Maddox Fieldhouse at LSU is being utilized as a special needs shelter and the Maravich Assembly Center is a medical triage and staging area. The Bernie Moore Track Stadium is being used as a transport staging area for arriving and departing medical evacuation vehicles.

There's a photo here showing HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona with one of the emergency patients at LSU.

Many other LSU facilities have been open for several days now, including the Laboratory School.

This New Orleans incident marks the end of a long and painful journey for me, a formerly unapologetic hawk who "in principle" believed in a sort of George S. Patton approach to the war waged against us by Wahabbism, propelled into a Bush vote by the Swiftvets and "voted for it before I voted against it". Life, and world events, have gone from ultra-simple, black and white, us against them, to a very dirty, very complex, very corrupt and twisted tale including compelling evidence that 9/11 itself was a setup (familiarize yourself with the term Al-CIA-Duh people), Iraq was about securing Saudi Arabia's northern border in a mercenary action for the House of Saud, Osama remains permanently at large to collect his big fat CIA and House of Saud paychecks... and now this.

The New Orleans story began as one of mere criminal negligence, which is also where 9/11 started, and it seems to be taking shape the way 9/11 took shape: that as the reports trickle in past the media blackouts, the FEMA snipping of telephone lines, the jamming of ham radio frequencies, the attempts at a total clampdown of all information and traffic in and out of the disaster zone, in spite of it all we get clues and snippets enough to piece together what really happened: the murder of Americans, by our own government.

It's actually with a sense of relief that I muse that this degenerate and diseased system that keeps the powerful in power, is about to completely fall apart. Today New Orleans, tomorrow the world.

If you take to the woods, take a lot of ammo and food, or they'll hunt you down or starve you out.

Just had to point out the ultimate in Orwellian language which we have reached: news stories referring to The Butcher of New Orleans having made THREE trips to the area.

Three. Hm. Friday...Today....I thought, I've been following this story by the hour, by the minute, how'd he sneak in a third time?

Answer: He didn't. They're counting his FLYING over it as ONE VISIT.

Did you know that you have VISITED every place you ever flew over?

Neither did I. Or anybody else.

I hope somewhere in ruined New Orleans a voudoun priestess has made a doll named Dubya and is sticking the biggest, sharpest nails she can find into it.

As far as voudoun, seriously--it certaily seems as if Yemanja, goddess of the waters, rose up against the City with unparalleled ferocity.

Got another idiotgram from a relative clucking about why the people didn't just leave. I love the idea of white middle class people that when you have no car and no cash and no credit cards and nowhere to go, you can still evacuate. I would like to take their car(s) and their credit cards and their debit cards and leave them with nothing but the clothes they stand up in and give them a couple of hours to get the hell out of wherever they are. Stupid fucking spoiled honky bitches and bastards.

Here is a reading from http://www.neworleansvoodoocrossroads.com/prophecies.html

in reference to my earlier post that you all so ostrich-like chose to ignore...enjoy and learn something other than surface thinking..The year 2005 will be under the auspices of Orisha Chango and Oddodua. Oddodua is one of the Great Queen of the Dead. When she resides in the house, all must be kept very quiet, without music or celebrating of any kind. An atmosphere of great reverence must be kept. We are embarking on the great 7-year cycle that will lead us to the special planetary alignment of 2012. (Please see below text on the Maya Calendar). For this very reason we are going to see severe natural disasters amplifying each and every year. Therefore it makes sense that this first year, the Queen of Death should take up residence in the house. However, it is not to be viewed as a negative thing. Wherever there is death, there is rebirth. Our job is to keep ourselves spiritually strong and focused so that we can first weather this 7-year cycle as well as facilitate a good rebirth for all and for Mother Earth. When Oddodua takes up residence, we must look squarely at who we are, where we came from and where we are going. No time is to be wasted. This is a good time to renew our service to the Ancestors, examine our life's aim and course, and re-affirm our destiny. One must establish mastery without delay and ruthlessly cut the heads of illusion particularly those that encourage self-deception. The time for posturing and lies is finished. Death is the great equalizer, when all falls off and away. The trappings of illusion and delusion are no more. Oddodua is here to remind us and to prepare us. There is no room left for petty quarrels and lies and self-importance. Oddodua reminds us that for these years coming, we must decide now which path we will tread: the path of light or of darkness. In depth readings are recommended at this time to delineate one's path, as well as spiritual work for centering, empowering, clear vision as well as service to the Ancestors. Very little is offered to Ododdua. Oddodua is envisioned as the female aspect of Olodumare, though the two are truly one, in the sense that only that which is created can die and only that which dies can be reborn. No animal sacrifices are ever made or food offered. Olodumare is represented by the Dove of the Holy Spirit and we could also represent Oddodua as the invisible bird of the soul that is released and flies to enlighment. This of course is in keeping with the dream described above. Oddodua can receive offerings of white dove feathers (or a pet white dove), bleached bones, white unscented candles, vetiver incense. This will be the year to wear white and meditate on the white light. Indeed Oddodua is to be celebrated as the Queen of Light, not darkness. Though she is not synchretized by any particular saint, I would equate her with the Archangel Uriel - the Archangel of Light - Indeed this would be a great first year to celebrate and serve the 4 Archangels for protection, light, vision and strength to help us through the next 7 year cycle. Chango (Xango) will also rule over this year. Chango is the Orisha of thunder, lightning and fire. Again we can see negative and positive qualities to Chango's appearance. Fire can be destructive of course but it is also a great cleanser and the ashes from a fire are very nourishing to the earth. For thousands of years farmers used the slash and burn method to enrich their fields before the next planting season. In Louisiana today, after 3 years of growing and cutting the cane is set to fire before new cane can be planted. Chango is also about quick-wit and intellect, about majesty, kingly leadership and care for the community. Chango's intellectual prowess assures him of a powerful position but this position is held for the benefit of all around him. Chango rules like a great king, looking after his subjects with care and forethought : the very qualities our political leaders are missing these days! Chango is propitiated with palm trees that are planted in his honor. The horse is sacred to him, particularly a white horse. He is offered red apples, a crown, a double-edge axe or sword and thunderstones. Also pomegranates. His colors are red and white and his number is 4. An altar to Chango may be undertaken with his major implements. Fires can be set and offered to Xango but great care must be practiced. It has been our experience that Xango will set fire to your house then put it out as spontaneously as they started but great care is to be exercised when offering any kind of fire to Xango, be it a red candle to a bonfire! AXE!!

I'm sure the victims of cosmic death cycles (and George Bush) in New Orleans will be much comforted by your occult perspective on their situation. Why don't you just paddle on down there and tell them the good news? You may have to pull a few ostrich-like heads out of the filth, but hey. Will you wear a special Hat? Or cosmic Regalia? I'm sure they'd love that too.

It was not an Ethnic Cleansing.It was not a question of blacks and whites.It was THIS:----------When the floods came, the government did one thing, they started a stopwatch. Day 1 everyone is still in shock. Day 2 chaos & looting begins. Day 3 the sick & elderly start dying. Day 4 people start killing eachother. So you have to get support to the area by Day 5 at the very latest to have much hope of saving most of the people (if they intend to).

The government employs think tanks to figure out what would happen in situations exactly like this. Obviously they had a scenario written out for a New Orleans flood, they just never get to test their scenarios for real. Concrete numbers would be awfully valuable in estimating loss of life in a nation-wide energy emergency, and this was a golden opportunity to do just that. They're not interested in the numbers of people killed by the flood, but rather the rate at which people were dying thereafter because you can extrapolate total loss of life over a longer period.-------------Experiment. Worst than dr. Mengele.

1) IF they would drown an entire city (or at least allow it to drown, which amounts to the same thing),

THEN doesn't it become that much easier to consider the possibility that they may have blown up a couple of Manhattan highrises?

With the evidence building by the day of Federal obstruction of rescue efforts, 9/11 takes on a new color. A government that would deliberately abandon an ENTIRE MAJOR CITY to death and destruction is surely capable of anything.

2) We know that the weather is being manipulated. This is NOT a matter a speculation in Russia (for instance), where the mainstream press have absolutely no problem reporting about rainstorms being shunted away from the Moscow area, on occasion.

With that in mind, what, if anything, is one to make of this:?

http://forecast.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/shadow/tracker/dynamic/main.html

(Scroll down for a map of Typhoon Nabi making a bull's-eye run on Fukuoka, Japan, while skirting every other land target in the area.)

Is America at war with Japan? With the yakuza? Before you start flaming, no, I don't believe this. But it's the kind of "hmmmm, I wonder" sort of question that just has to occur to you, even if you dismiss it right away. To be revisited?

3) Where the heck is Dick Cheney?

4) It's been said many times that the South finally "won" the Civil War. Just look at all the Southern Presidents, House and Senate leaders, and so on.

Now I'm not so sure. Though of course there's always the question of WHOSE South.

5) Finally, isn't it time to revisit the idea of secession? Can't they just convene for a vote at the Louisiana state house, declare themselves FULLY SOVEREIGN, and demand that all U.S. government personnel, military and civilian, leave the state within 72 hours?

I notice in the article that you say "that's not the way that Haliburton does business", which is a company clearly linked to the Bush administration. I think it's important in times like these that we all try to bear in mind that there is no longer a difference between the Democrats and Republicans, the "Conservatives" and the "Liberals". They are all on the same team, and their differences are only a show to distract those gullible enough to buy it long enough to continue with their actions. If you really want to make a difference, and if you really want to inform people, stop with the one-sided attacks, and start with pointing out that the problem is systematic.

Anonymous @ 3:12 am: although I'm not a victim of the flood, I am extremely frightened of the events coming our way and yet I do find words of comfort in Dr Theopolis's words.

Face it, this plane of reality is shutting down. It's far too corrupt to continue to exist. I can't say whether the final blow will arrive in 2012 or 2112, but it's sure to come. The only hope is to remember, in whatever spiritual language and imagerey you have available to you, that rebirth always follows death.

For days, now, we've all been sickened by the inhumanity our government has demonstrated. It's almost been too much to take. This morning I woke up so enraged that I turned my thoughts to the ulterior motives that might lie behind the abandonment of New Orleans, ... It most certainly involves racism, there's little doubt; but clearly the destroyed lives and the dead are victims not only of deliberate inaction but of equally intentional obstruction of relief efforts, too. I must understand why! ...

It warranted a bit of research:

It is commonly known that vast sums of unregulated money generated by Gulf Coast casinos and gambling boats are being laundered in off shore enterprises and channeled into Republican reelection campaigns [ see refs to Abramoff and SunCruz, below ]. Dennis Hopsicker goes a few steps farther in implying that some the gambling business' key "players" are likely linked to drugs, flight schools and ultimately to finance of FBI/CIA black ops ... not to mention ties to the Bush family.

Corporate watch: Halliburton"Halliburton's first foray into war profiteering began soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. [ ... ] Between 1950 and 1955 [ ... ] oil exploration in the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast areas was flourishing".

Was the Gulf Coast storm simply too good an opportunity to be missed, I wonder? Let the survivors wallow and die a slow death in a singular hell, blame and discredit two sitting ducks, Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin [ the latter having taken office vowing to put an end to corruption ], appoint Halliburton/KBR to rebuild the coast, on our dime, according to casinos' specifications, thus ensuring an expansion of invisible fund-raising opportunities, and of course turn a blind eye to oil companies' price gouging ... Well that's tantamount to hitting an entire flock of birds with one stone, isn't it?, and a great number of palms will have been greased in the process!

Hmm, it may well have been too good an opportunity.

Other theories?

PS: In doing this research I came across a link to a site called 'New Orleans Casinos, Horse Racing and Gambling - 25 web sites'. Unfortunately the site is down at the moment. Now, tell me again, what work was Michel Brown engaged in previously?

PPS: I agree quite fundamentally with the Anonymous 10:08am, that corruption is not a partisan issue: it spans all political specrums. The links I've provided lead to information pertaining to Abramoff, BushCo, etc, because they are current cases, but I'm certain we could come up with plenty of Dems who deserve to be hung, too.

Cassandra 2:43 am,What's also being overlooked, is that everytime those 2 predators Bush & Rumsfeld come into New Orleans to admire their handiwork; the air space is literally cleared and stopped dead, just for them. This virtually makes it impossible for the rescuers to do their job as a "no-fly zone" is created, allowing even more people to die. No helicopters can either arrive to drop off sick and injured nor leave to pick up more. An Air Force Captain was quoted in the Delaware News Journal as saying... "What the hell is he [Rumsfeld] doing here now? He's tying up our air space." He continued... "There are patients on those helicopters and they need to get down".

Those two sick, sadistic motherfuckers are DELIBERATELY jamming shit up to kill even more people! Mass murder and genocide by any other name.

Besides trying to federalize the states, does anyone else see how Bush is making the American gov't look more stupid with every passing day, as if softening up the public to be folded into a more competent world government?

What amazes THE HELL out of me is how you STILL don't get it, Pat. The connection is the people who are in charge of all of these events, whether it's creating them or fixing them. And what amazes me also is how so many "liberals" whatever that may mean, can just see smiley faces everywhere. What drugs do they have you on?